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Went to the races as a paying punter today for the first time in ages. UK racing isn't cheap at the best of times, flat racing doesn't have the excitement most of the year and it's rather cold during jumps season. TV coverage is decent enough if you can't get to the track as often as you'd like.

The two main races today at Newbury, the Long Distance Hurdle and the Hennessy showed just why National Hunt racing is miles ahead of flat racing in popularity in the UK & Ireland. Big Buck's is the best staying hurdler in training, he won the top races at Cheltenham and Aintree in his class, and is going around again to repeat the feat. He faced a small, but quality field at level weights and won very, very easily. Special thanks to the bookies who put up 1/2. It is very rare I bet at those odds, but this horse should have been 1/3 at best, so the value had to be taken.

The Hennessy is the best handicap chase of the season. Note that key word which some purists detes…

Western Australia, after copping a caning from the courts over trying to ban Betfair, has now reluctantly agreed to include a gross revenue deal in their racefield fees legislation. Every state now has to introduce some form of fee legislation, as they get charged by every other state for it, with the breakdown of the old gentleman's agreement which let the TABs bet on each other's product in a free contra deal. WA are in the position if being a net importer of racing product, so they are going to have to cover the shortfall somehow.

Racing NSW are currently in court doing battle with Betfair and Sportsbet over their attempts at imposing a turnover-based fee, while Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania all went with fees on gross revenue. Victoria, the premier racing state in Australia, set their fee at 10% for the year rising to 15% during the prestige spring carnival. Sounds justified to me. South Aus went with 10% as well.

So now the Polish govt have decided to give exemptions on the online betting advertising in Poland to companies investing in sports sponsorship - but with a catch.

A rather confused situation this. I imagine a discussion something like this behind closed doors....

"Let's ban all forms of betting unless they have a Polish licence"

"Is that a good idea, that only leaves land-based casinos that rob our citizens blind?"

"But they pay us lots of taxes"

"Well, that's OK then.... What about the sports sponsorships? Unibet, Bwin and other companies pay a lot of money to sponsor sport in Poland, and have legal contracts as well..."

"Hmm, we don't want our football clubs to end up like ones in Albania and Latvia that are being investigated for match-fixing... I know, how about we give them an exemption, so they can still spend their money, but reap no benefits from it?"

This case has been running all week and will continue for a few days yet. Numerous articles about it in the Aus press with Racing NSW gaining some ground (they couldn't really lose much more) and legalese choking proceedings to a very slow grind. One quote from tomorrow's article in the Sydney Morning Herald I wanted to highlight though:

Racing NSW argues that the fee should be calculated by turnover because turnover is easier to assess and ''less susceptible to avoidance or manipulation'' than gross revenue.

It also argues that turnover is not influenced by the particular business model or business decisions made by the company.

Turnover is also preferable to gross revenue because it cannot be manipulated by inducements, rebates or benefits given to valuable customers, Racing NSW argues.

Rubbish, there is not one system in the world which is manipulation-proof. On-course bookmakers in Aus have been caught over the years taking bets on a second set of books - speci…

Have been flat out with work and baby-minding over the past week, but managed to slip in a brief trip to Sweden on business. Got to see my first ice hockey game live, it was brilliant!

In the red is the home team, Djurgarden, and the visitors, Vastra Frolanda, are in the white. On TV watching the NHL you don't get to appreciate the speed, the stick skills and the quality of the skating. And the home crowd supporters didn't stop singing the whole way through. Great spectacle.

There have been several stories around in recent weeks about the threat of gambling bans being introduced in Poland, mostly a lot of speculation about what might happen and panicking about complete bans. This latest report centres on advertising and marketing bans which will strip Polish football clubs and the second division of millions of euro.

Current deals between egaming companies under threat from the law include Expekt’s sponsorship of the Polish national team; BetAtHome’s shirt sponsorship of Wisla Krakow, champions of last year’s Ekstraklasa top league in Polish football; Betclick’s shirt sponsorship of Ekstraklasa team Lech Poznan and Bwin’s role as a principal sponsor of Ekstraklasa team Legia Warszawa.

The loss of Unibet’s title sponsorship of the second tier of Polish football, Unibet 1.Liga, could alone cost the Polish National 2nd League €4m a season.

Just three weeks left until boathlon season starts and long-time readers of my blog will know my fascination with the sport. It really is a brilliant sport for betting in-running, especially the sprint and individual disciplines (there are five different types of races). Once the season gets underway, I'll get into explaining more about it. Feel free to go back into my archives from last winter to read about it. The Winter Olympics are in February, so it's worth learning about it.

The two female Russian drug cheats from last season, Albina Akhatova and Yekaterina Iourieva, have lost their appeal against two-year doping bans.

At least 10 matches on the men's ATP tour are being investigated by the tennis anti-corruption unit, Sportsmail can today reveal.

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THE security unit at online betting exchange Betfair alone were so alarmed by gambling patterns on at least 10 occasions in 2009 that they referred the matches straight to the sport's authorities.

Well the Mail says they can't name them, but I'm prepared to have a guess at the ten. No accusations of guilt here, just stating the fact that the betting patterns on these matches were in desperate need of further attention.

PADDY POWER HAS MADE a major play for the French market, signing a five-year deal with French duopoly operator Pari Mutuel Urbain (PMU), the largest single operator in Europe, via a new Paddy Power business-to-business (B2B) division.

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PMU chief executive and chairman Philippe Germond today said: "This partnership is going to enable PMU to offer sporting bets online under its own brand and retain direct management of its client database. Paddy Power will provide us with its expertise in sports betting. Through this partnership PMU is given the means to be ready for the opening of the online betting market in France next year."

Paddy Power's traders will set PMU odds, set risk parameters for each event, bet type and customer and manage PMU’s online promotions from Dublin.

In Australia, the three main zones for corporate bookmakers are the Northern Territory (home of Centrebet, Sportsbet, Sportingbet, IASBet and numerous others), Tasmania (home of Betfair Aus) and the ACT (home of Sportsalive). When I say home, it's at least where their servers are based and a handful of staff - most have marketing and other departments based in Melbourne or Sydney. These three regions, two territories and Australia's smallest state, have little industry to speak of and need businesses in their region for employment, taxes etc. And they also have no deep-seated allegiance to TABs like the bigger states such as Victoria and New South Wales.

Tasmania recently threw the cat amongst the pigeons by scrapping the local tax on corporate bookmakers and adopting a $250k annual flat fee, a very attractive prospect for major firms turning over hundreds of millions per year. This was brought on by Betfair's five-year licence be…

# Viewed – flying, don't see any problem with being top weight.# C’est La Guerre – is it 100% fit? Chance if it is.# Fiumicino – big run at Caulfield, bolter chance for the place.# Master O’Reilly – never a fan, will no doubt look like it was unlucky at some stage and fly home# Mourilyan – best of the imports, not keen on the 'needs to be ridden cold' comment from trainer. You don't get that luxury in the Cup.# Roman Emperor – he goes well, price a bit silly over the weekend, should be around 10# Ista Kareem – will run the distance, slowly.# Crime Scene – UK form not flash, and did little at Geelong.# Munsef – no, has been winning ordinary races in the UK# Zavite – might get the sit from gate 3, if can sit close then could be pushing for third.# Alcopop – great form, on the up etc. But can a bloke who has never ridden at Flemington before and a novice trainer win the big one? Huge story if they do, and I know one of the owners.# Harris T…

Just over 24hrs to go until the race that stops the nation, the Melbourne Cup. I'm busy doing the form and will have something late in the day (Monday UK time) if anyone wants to follow my tips. It will be broadast all night on ATR, and Betfair Live Video. The Cup is a great race, but remember, for punters, you can win or lose just as much on any other race of the year (unless you bet in tens of thousands), so don't go overboard. The support card is quite handy for a change, hoping to locate some winners earlier in the programme too.

About Me

Former Head of Education at Betfair, now in the outside world stirring up controversy, keeping punters informed and doing a bit of consulting and writing. Proud Australian who has been 'visiting' London for a few too many years now. Available for betting editorial, previews and industry comment. Contact me at scottf at journalist.com.Now regularly covering major race meetings and sporting events via guest blogger previews. Keen to have a go? Drop me a line...